This GIF is simply of one of my Sports Heroes, who is no longer here with us, Kobe Bryant. In many people’s eyes, he is a legend and a basketball icon . This GIF is meaningful, because being a basketball player myself, it sort of hits home. My first ever real basketball jersey was a Kobe Bryant jersey, when he played for the Los Angelos Lakers. He a wore the number, 24, which was my number when I played basketball in high school. From his foundations, basketball academy in California, to his highly rated sneakers, he has made a great impact on the world. Even if people do not care for basketball, they have some type of knowledge on who Kobe Bryant is. This process is was very fun, I like to make GIFs and especially for these type of assignments. I think this also, allows me to become more comfortable with this form of digital art. I did not think about digital creativity in a form of a gif, until this class. I think creating these GIFs, will be useful in future endeavors as well.

As you can see this GIF was inspired by a NBA game between the Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards. The Washington Wizards were down by just a few points from the Brooklyn Nets, during the final quarter of the game. The Wizards got excited about their shot due to only a few minutes left in the game and their score rose one point over the Nets. The Wizard’s team started to celebrate after this shot, because they were so close to beating the Nets. Many people do this during the game and it just shows how the heat of the game can bring many emotions. This GIF tells a story, in such a way that it immediately shows the excitement and celebration before the teams actual win. Creating this was very enjoyable to me, because I love basketball and I like how I got to incorporate it with Digital Storytelling.

Well hello again. It’s Friday.

Oh yes. Animated gifs…my worst nightmare. Once again, I had so much trouble with this crap. I downloaded VLC to help me obtain the frames from the video and it wasn’t working because (J’m assuming) I didn’t give it admin…but like heck I will because I don’t know if this program is corrupted and what not. So I literally spent an hour weighing my options and figured I’ll just do that same exact thing I did last time.

Anyways, the gif assignment I went with today is called “home video gif” and since I don’t have a lot of home videos…I used a video I took back in 2016 when I went to New York to see our favorite virtual diva in concert…kind of wished I had something silly instead, but I figured this would make do.

Ah, yes. I remember this concert so vividly…so many fellow nerds at a sold out concert for a Japanese hologram. #NoRegrets But honestly, this was probably one of the best concerts I have ever been to and every time I go, I try to get VIP tickets because I want to be up close to that glass screen and the band members. The song that was playing in the gif is called ??????or “Secret Police” and it is legit so hype I can’t even.

Anyone got any tips for animating gifs? (? ?????)? ?

Taylor

Hallelujah, this was a pain.

Welp, I never thought the day would come where I would create a gif by myself. I thought it would be a bit easier, however I was wrong. So, so wrong.

First off, let me tell you how frustrating GIMP is in terms of creating a gif from a video. I downloaded the latest version for these assignments specifically and looked up how to create these suckers using a mac. It seemed fairly easy enough; I was able to download the video I wanted and cut it down to the main portion I wanted capture. BUT THEN I REALIZED. To create gifs from videos, you have to get every freakin’ frame. That’s fine and dandy WHEN YOU HAVE GAP FOR GIMP. To my ultimate concern, GAP does not exist for Mac but does for Windows…my freakin’ luck. So I had to figure out a plan…I had to go to the cheap source itself; Giphy. Please understand, while yes, Giphy can make Gifs, I specifically used it for retrieving the frames in which I then ushered over to GIMP and conducted my business like a sad champ. It did work, though I am quite upset with this stupid development of why doesn’t GAP support GIMP.

Anyways, the animated gif assignment I went with for today was the favorite musician gif and I bring to you the biggest pain in my butt of a graphic I’ve ever dealt with:

Here comes the explanation: the artist I chose was Ayumi Hamasaki and the video I chose was her performance of her song “kanariya” from a fairly recent concert of hers. This performance is rather beautiful and Ayu herself is so incredible and still a mother freakin’ queen even at the age of 38. The song also holds a special meaning to me. The lyrics are rather…dark… (“It’s not that the canaries whose voices were crushed to death couldn’t cry“) but it symbolized a point in my life where I was honestly too ashamed of myself for things I had no control over or the horrible things that a select few people opted to do to me. So I think this performance of this song is the best choice I could make.

Did you have any difficulties making a gif? What program did you end up using?

Taylor

I found this GIF of what I thought was one of the most amazing sports plays in recent history, as the player literally did a flip over the top of the other player in order to score a touchdown. Pretty amazing in my opinion.